Does anyone know what needs to be done to make SLES 15 SP4 act as a time server?

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Configure-Administer
1

Does anyone know what needs to be done to make SLES 15 SP4 act as a time server for HPE switches?

SLES
systemctl status chronyd
● chronyd.service - NTP client/server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2024-10-02 15:20:44 AEST; 19min ago

I can’t seems to find this /etc/chrony.conf file in this /etc location.

switch config
timesync sntp
sntp broadcast
sntp 300
sntp server priority 1 x.x.x.x

2

@STCCNL Hi /etc/chrony.conf should be present?

All you need to do is add the local stratum 10 directive to the system conf or conf.d directory and setup the clients (HPE switches) to point at this server. Oh and maybe allow access on the network eg allow xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xx

Ref: https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP4/html/SLES-all/cha-ntp.html

3

I found the /etc/chrony.conf file.

Do I need to enable local stratum 10? In the file it looks like it’s commented out.

Serve time even if not synchronized to a time source.

#local stratum 10

This is already configured

Allow NTP client access from local network.

allow xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/xx

4

@STCCNL Hi, you need to uncomment. But I would suggest a /etc/chrony.d/my_ntp.conf file as any system updates may over write your changes. In the .d directory it wont…

5

@malcolmlewis do you have a sample of what needs to be in the /etc/chrony.d/my_ntp.conf?

6

@STCCNL I’m running SLES on a RPi 3 with GPS as my local network time server;

cat /etc/chrony.d/gps_time.conf

# Add gps and pps as reference clock
refclock SHM 0 delay 0.5 refid NMEA
refclock PPS /dev/pps0 refid PPS

# Allow NTP client access from local network.
allow xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/24

# Serve time even if not synchronized to a time source.
local stratum 10

You should only need the last two (2) settings…

7

Thanks @malcolmlewis, I’ll look into creating a conf file in the /etc/chrony.d location.

In the meantime, I’ve edited the /etc/chrony.conf and uncomment the local stratum 10 and restarted the chronyd service

I now can see the port 123 when I run lsof -i4 -P | grep 123
chronyd 129868 chrony 7u IPv4 21841910 0t0 UDP *:123

but my switch is still saying
I 10/04/24 09:22:25 02631 SNTP: ST1-CMDR: Server not found at x.x.x.x.
I 10/04/24 09:22:25 00414 SNTP: ST1-CMDR: Unable to reach configured SNTP servers

Is there a way to test what else could be missing?

8

@STCCNL can the switches be set to use ntp?

9

We need to configure SLES chrony as NTP server.
First your sles should have good time source and then sles can act as NTP source for other client.